Long Beach’s new minor league baseball team has unveiled six names in the running to christen the Pioneer Baseball League club expected to begin playing in May.
The names, suggested by fans, are: Coast, Cruisers, Groove, Grit, Parrots and Regulators — the last one being a direct acknowledgement of the song by trailblazing Long Beach rapper Warren G, who is a part-owner of the team
Starting Wednesday through Oct. 15, fans can submit their vote in person at the Long Beach Airport, Joe Jost’s, SteelCraft, District 4 Pizza, Riley’s and ISM Brewing & Kitchen. Voters can also submit online. A second round of voting will take place later this month, from Oct. 22 to 29, among three finalist names.
Club owners say the six names were chosen from the 1,300 fan suggestions they got during a two-week submission period last month. Ideas came from 17 different states — some sent even from across the Canadian border. People sent in handwritten letters, self-taped videos and logos drawn on paper napkins.
“We had one person actually design a jersey and a full-on baseball uniform,” said Ena Patel, the club president.
The name contest is the next step in the club’s establishment of an independent baseball league team in Long Beach. Club leadership says it will unveil the team name and logo in January, with a full merchandise rollout in March.
Establishing a sports team, no matter the discipline or league, is a huge undertaking. Research is conducted, design firms are contracted, hundreds of logos are mooted, trademarks are secured, merchandise is produced and marketing plans are rolled out. Where it’s possible, Patel said, the branding process must have at least some aspects of a democratic undertaking.
This branding is particularly difficult, as the team looks to hurdle the city’s baseball past and dodge the trademarks to a number of possible names that have been bandied about over the years.
The city’s last venture into minor league baseball, the Long Beach Armada, lasted only four seasons after the city pulled the permits of the team and league in 2009 to lease Blair Field exclusively to Cal State Long Beach. Prior to the Armada, two other minor league teams played, with one ending its maiden season in 1996, having played under three names — Long Beach Barracuda, the Long Beach Franchise and Long Beach Riptide.
The Long Beach Breakers played in 2001 and 2002, averaging 55,000 attendees a season and ending one season as champions and another in second place. Despite their success, the team relocated to Mission Viejo in Orange County.
In the fan suggestions, “We got Breakers, and we definitely got Riptides. Those were also questions for us,” Patel said. “Do we want to create our own history with a blank slate, or do we want to kind of revive a name from a team that was already here in the past?”
The names chosen instead reflect the regional mood, its economy, artistry and fauna. Some names, like Regulators, Coast and Cruisers were self-evident. Others came as a surprise.
“One of the most common words we heard from people when we were like, ‘Can you give us two or three words to describe the city?’” Patel began. “And they would say, ‘hard working, gritty, people that like to roll up their sleeves and just get stuff done.’”
Patel said the club hopes to have a team, from the merchandise to the ballplayers, assembled ahead of the league’s season opening on May 26.
They will likely hold open tryouts, following in the tradition of the league’s other teams.
Right now, they’re working on securing their home field, with plans to share Blair Field with CSULB’s Dirtbags, whose season runs February to May, while the new baseball club will play May to September.
“It’s a giant puzzle that we’re trying to figure out right now,” Patel said.
The parties are meeting weekly, Patel said, to review possible improvements to the field and to iron out scheduling arrangements. The club is focused on hiring coaching staff and managers at the moment, bearing in mind that free agency opens following the league’s current season.
“Lucky for us, Blair Field is pretty much a turnkey solution,” Patel said. “But obviously this is an opportunity for us to invest in the ballpark and make certain improvements and upgrades, which we want to do in partnership with Cal State Long Beach.”